


Picking up the Pieces

by ConcentratedMatter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-19 02:26:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13694946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConcentratedMatter/pseuds/ConcentratedMatter
Summary: Caleb makes sure that Nott is all right after the attack on Alfield.





	Picking up the Pieces

**Author's Note:**

> Again, based on an anonymous Tumblr prompt. Someone asked for Caleb making sure Nott was okay after the fight, with some additional magic teaching and just general fluff.   
> I added a tiny smidge of angst at no extra charge.

“Nott?”

 

Nott was standing near a window on the second floor of the inn, ducked away in an alcove hidden from view from the stairs. In the immediate aftermath of the fight, she had watched some of the crownsguard direct people to form bucket chains to put out some of the lingering fires. A few had helped guide wounded colleagues towards a borrowed cart, with at least one of the wounded men shrieking out in pain. Nott had heard his cries echoing through the side-streets as the cart had pulled around the corner, away from the chaos. She had continued to watch as some of the citizens slowly returned to the streets, observing a middle-aged couple clutching their young child as they watched, crying, how their home had gone up in flames at the corner of the block. Gradually as the evening had progressed, people had disappeared from the streets, returning to their homes or finding shelter with friends and family. The wounded had been tended to and the dead taken care of. Now with the major fires extinguished, only ruins and embers were left. The battle was over, but Nott realized that the people had been left to pick up the pieces.

 

“Nott.”

 

She tore her eyes away from the city in front of her and looked over her shoulder at the source of her name-calling. Behind her stood Caleb. In the soft orange light cast by the candles in the  sconces on the walls he looked a little frazzled, exhaustion visible on his face. There were streaks of gray and black on his cheeks; ash from the fires. She blinked at him and noticed he was frowning. She gave him a brief smile, to reassure him she was paying attention.

 

“Yeah?”

 

Caleb hesitated, taking the time to properly look her over now that they had a moment to themselves. She quickly glanced down at herself.  _Oh Gods_ , she thought. She looked a mess.

 

Her hood was torn where an arrow had pierced it. She could still feel some of the sticky blood on her chin and neck where the glancing shot had torn her skin. The bandages on her ears and hands were singed and frayed, and her cloak had new holes were embers had burned through the material. Worse yet, the front of her shirt was dark and completely stained with blood. As she looked at it she could still feel the burn in her chest where the arrow had pierced her. While she had barely consciously experienced that moment, she did remember the force of the projectile as it had entered her chest, punching the air from her lungs. The swift relief of darkness had enveloped her before the pain had been able to reach her conscious mind, however.

 

Now her chest ached, and under Caleb’s scrutinizing gaze she couldn’t help but rub at the spot with her right hand, obscuring it from view. The gesture made Caleb’s face fall and he kneeled down in front of her. She quickly straightened her back, letting her hand return to her side.

 

“Don’t worry, Caleb, I’m all right!” She said, trying to put a beat of positivity in her voice. Caleb looked unconvinced; a well-known look of concern and heartbreak on his face. She hated that expression.

 

“You… nearly died, Nott.” Caleb said, his voice croaky - whether it was from all the smoke her had inadvertently inhaled or from something else, Nott was unsure. She bit her lip. She couldn’t disagree with that assessment, but on the other hand, what use was it to dwell on the past?

 

“Well, I’m perfectly fine now. Jester made sure of that!” She said, and she genuinely could not hide the admiration in her voice for her new friend. Healing potions were great, but she had to admit that having someone like Jester take care of them was like a gift from the Gods.

 

Caleb reached out towards her and used the sleeve of his coat to wipe away some of the blood and ash from her face. Nott recoiled at first but then let him continue, looking down at her feet as if the marks being left on Caleb’s coat were somehow some type of proof of her failure. He straightened her hood and inspected her cloak, his fingers lingering on each little hole. He sighed deeply.

 

“I’m glad that you are all right. But… that could have easily ended very differently.” He looked up at her and Nott squirmed under his scrutiny. “I’m not trying to scare you, Nott. But, well, you scared me.”

 

“Sorry…” Nott murmured, but her mind focused back on the past few days. The other fights they had barely managed to scrape past alive; that  _Caleb_  had barely survived. She smiled wryly, although it did not reach her eyes.  “…Maybe it was just the tables being turned between us for once, huh?”

 

Caleb stared at her intently and when next he spoke there was an edge of hurt to his voice: “The difference is that I am not trying to run into the fires, Nott. I’m not running towards the danger.” His tone got a little more desperate towards the end of the sentence. “In fact, I’m trying,  _very hard_ , to keep myself alive. Not only for me, but for you!” He wiped a trembling hand across his own face, staring at her. Nott quickly looked down, her heart beating fast. She didn’t want to upset Caleb… she didn’t want to upset anyone.

 

“I… I’m sorry, Caleb.” She muttered quickly, looking down and nervously picking at the scarred bandages on her left hand, slinking back into herself. “Sorry.”

 

There was a brief moment of silence between them, standing in the corridor at the top of the stairs, the soft noises of the inn filtering through the floorboards and doors. She could barely hear the low voices of Molly and Beau through the wall, arguing about something.

 

Suddenly she felt Caleb’s arms wrap around her, his hands clutching at her back as he enveloped her into a hug. Stunned, Nott froze. She blinked over Caleb’s shoulder, staring at the orange, dancing glow that the candles left on the walls.

 

“Promise me you won’t do that again.” Caleb whispered in her ear, and the distress in his voice made Nott tense up. She closed her eyes.

 

In her mind’s eyes the candle glow in her periphery quickly grew into a roaring fire, the heat beating against her cheeks as she stood there, still frozen in that side-street as she watched a shadow loom up out of the ash cloud ahead. For a brief moment the smoke danced around the silhouette, revealing the giant gnoll stepping forward, unsheathing his sword. She was just standing there, hearing the splintering of wood and the great roaring of the fires of the buildings that were being consumed, timber and stone being reduced to rubble. Hearing the cries of battle behind her, and somehow Fjord and Molly’s voices ringing out above, shouting warnings. But above it all, she could still hear her own breathes, quick and shallow, and the frantic hammering of her heart making the blood roar in her ears. As if both her lungs and heart were trying to get a life-time of beats and breaths in the few seconds she knew she had left. The Gnoll turning away. But then suddenly, lightning-fast…

 

She clutched at Caleb’s coat, her eyes opening as words choked on her lips. Sights, sounds and smells echoed through her mind. Trembling, she let herself syphon comfort from Caleb’s embrace.

 

“I… I’ll try.” Her voice was hoarse and shaky.

 

Caleb released his embrace and moved back, still holding onto her shoulders as he studied her face. She looked up at him nervously. Somehow, in that moment, she felt a little more grounded.

 

“Let’s get you cleaned up.” Caleb said, releasing his grip and softly smiling at her.

 

“I’m not taking a bath.” She stammered quickly, and Caleb chuckled.

 

“You don’t have to, but we do have to get all that blood and dirt off of you, Nott. It’s not a good look.” He answered, straightening up. Looking down at her shirt, Nott knew she couldn’t argue with that.

 

Caleb held out his hand, and feeling a little silly, she took it as he led her towards the washroom at the opposite end of the halway. The room wasn’t that large, with a couple of simple wooden tubs and buckets against the east wall for washing clothes. There was a table and washbasin, and a ceramic pitcher with water. There was a simple, brass candle holder on top of the table. The short, stubby candle on it had burned out, casting the room in shadow. Caleb simply waved his hands in short circles above each other and soon three little dancing lights formed and floated out from his palms towards the corners of the room. Nott quickly shut the door behind them, in the hope of not attracting the attention of any other wandering guests.

 

She watched as Caleb filled the washbasin with the water from the pitcher. He grabbed one of the wooden stools next to the tubs and placed it in front of the table. He motioned for her to stand on the stool and she reluctantly obliged, inching towards him while watching the bright little lights dance in the corners of the room.

 

“I’ll never understand how you humans can get so much done when you always require so much light in order to achieve anything, Caleb. It’s almost a waste of magic.” Nott said. Although she might not have a need for such a dazzling display of magic for her own, she had to admit there was a certain type of simple beauty to the spell.

 

Caleb laughed and knelt down in front of her, starting to peel of some of the bandages from her ears. Nott followed his example, unwrapping the frayed bandages from her hands and arms, gathering them in a pile on the ground. They had been so nice and clean only the day before.

 

“It’s true, our eyes are pretty useless when compared to ones as sharp as yours.” Caleb said as he finished uncoiling the bandages, a hint of amusement in his voice. Nott frowned.

 

“I didn’t say they were useless.” She muttered, eyeing Caleb as he reached out and took the candle stub from the table. With a little snap of his fingers a small flame appeared in his right hand. It floated on top of nothing, a bright, contained little blaze dancing above his palm. He pointed his index finger and the fire sprang forth, igniting the wick of the candle he was holding in his left hand.

 

“However, my need for light gave me a reason to learn how to control these flames.” Caleb said, placing the candle back on the table. It cast a warm, orange glow into the room. He looked back at her, studying her hood and face, particularly the small burns on her ears.  “Of course, such flames have many additional uses besides the simple lighting of candles, as well you know.”

 

Nott nodded her head in understanding, looking at burning candle. “I guess you are right. I mean, I still have yet to learn that trick.” She had seen Caleb blast away enemies with that spell, sending them flying across the battlefield. It would have come in very handy during the battle, she was sure.

 

Following her gaze, Caleb gave a short ‘hm’ of agreement. Then he looked back at her again, his eyes lighting up. A large smile appeared on his face.

 

“Yet, you have done some incredible magic, Nott! You’ve been studying hard, I can tell. New things. Things I have not yet considered myself!” He suddenly lifted her up from the stool and twirled her around, grinning at her. Startled, Nott grabbed onto his arms. The room dizzied past behind her and she gave a quick nervous laugh. When he put her back down he was beaming at her, and Nott could almost feel herself blush in response to the attention and praise.

 

“I… I’ve just been practicing a little bit when you weren’t looking. I’ve been trying out some things. I didn’t know for sure they would work!” She stammered, feeling somewhat out of her depth, talking magic with Caleb. “I thought that the fight was as good a time as any to try out some of the ones that were… eh, a little more tricky to try out in normal circumstances.”

 

“And you did so well! I’m so very proud of you. You’ll have to show me all your tricks sometime. I’m sure that together we can learn from each other, hm?” Caleb said, grinning. Nott nodded, and a strange warm glow spread through her chest. The thought of her teaching Caleb some magic instead of the other way around was such a strange and alien idea to her.

 

Still smiling, Caleb removed a simple cotton handkerchief from his coat pocket and saturated it with water by submerging it in the washbasin. Searching her face for permission, he carefully reached out and tilted her head to the right side. She shut her eyes and he began scrubbing some of the blood and dirt from her face and neck. It didn’t really hurt, Jester’s healing touch had closed the wounds of her biggest injuries. There were still a few scrapes and small burns that stung upon contact with the cool liquid, but she was used to much worse and she remained perfectly still as Caleb washed away most of the grime.

 

After he was sufficiently satisfied with his work, Nott turned and stood on her toes to lean over the washbasin. Although it being far from her favourite thing, she cupped both her hands and splashed some of the water against her face and neck to wash away the leftover soot. Then she submerged her hands in the water and used her fingers to scrub away the filth from her skin and fingernails. It didn’t really have to be a thorough washing, she decided. She just needed to look like she hadn’t just murdered someone. For her own safety.

 

“I’ll ask Jester if she has an extra shirt for you to wear. Just for tonight.” Caleb said, straightening up, wringing out the handkerchief. Nott gave him a quick, confused look.

 

“Huh?”

 

Caleb motioned towards her thoroughly stained and bloodied shirt. “You can’t continue wearing that, Nott.”

 

Nott looked down, and although the blood had dried, she realised Caleb was right. “Oh.”

 

Caleb hung the handkerchief over the side of one of the tubs and dug around in his left pocket for something. “So, we’ll figure something out for tonight, and then tomorrow we’ll buy you some new clothes, hm?” He removed a small, leather pouch from his pocket and threw it towards her with a little arc. Tumbling through the air, she saw that it seemed almost filled to bursting. She caught it, and weighted it in her hands. It was pretty heavy.

 

“That’s a lot of coin!” She said, surprised but excited. She could feel the hard edges of many large gold coins poking out from underneath the leather. How much was there?

 

“Our share of the reward.” Caleb said smiling, patting her encouragingly on the shoulder. “Now come, let’s go find Jester.”

 

Nott hopped down from the stool and followed Caleb as he opened the door to the hallway, motioning for her to go first. Still impressed, Nott was turning the pouch over in her hands, fingering its contents. Walking through the door, she looked up at Caleb with a sly grin.

 

“Well, I guess there is _one_  benefit to running into danger.” She said, teasing in her voice. Caleb frowned down at her.

 

“Perhaps. When we all do it together.” Caleb replied, giving her a mock stern look. “But let’s try to not make it a habit, okay?”

 

He quickly ruffled her hair as they walked through the corridor towards their room. Nott thought back on the past few days of mishaps and mayhem. Meeting so many new people. The sneaking around, the lying, and getting arrested. All the strange and scary creatures. The fights. The many injuries. She frowned.

 

“Yeah, let’s not.” She agreed. Her hand closed around the purse, the contents almost burning in her palm. They had some gold to spend, so it would surely be a bit more smooth sailing from now on. They just needed to stay out of trouble.

 

Yes, as long as they just laid low and stayed together, it would all turn out fine. She was sure.


End file.
